Do You Despise Small Things?

 

“For who has despised the day of small things.” 

Zechariah 4:3

We hear messages from well-meaning preachers and passionate speakers about how God calls us to the grand, the prominent and the substantial. And our hearts begin to beat with a desire to go where no one has gone before and accomplish the impossible.

And sometime He does. But God’s will is not only found in the great big, mountain-size dreams that He tucks in our hearts. Sometimes, His perfect will is smack dab in the middle of the mundane.

So, do you sense God has called you to bigger and better things? Has He given you a vision for a ministry that is beyond you, yet you know it is for you? Are you stuck in neutral as you are waiting for it to unfold?

Sometimes we want the prominent before we walk through the petty; we seek the splendid instead of the small. But serving God is seldom a battle for position rather an aligning of our will to His. How, where and to what extent we serve is entirely up to Him.

While it’s part of our DNA to desire to accomplish more, the goal is not to do more. The goal is to know Him more each obedient step of the way and let Him define the extent of our accomplishments.

This has been a hard one for a girl whose favorite quote is, “Attempt great things for God, expect great things from God.” ~ William Carey. But the ultimate purpose in attempting great things for God must always be motivated by a heart that knows Him and desires to make Him known.

It’s an odd phenomena, but those who have been called into the ministry must be very careful that their work does not become the object of their worship. It’s so easy to get wrapped up in the grandness of the call and neglect to focus on the greatness of God.

Small things may be where He choses to leave us because we’d crumble under the weight of something bigger. But small things are just as important to God as the big things.

He gives significance to extending a cup of water in His name, to serving dinner to a stranger, to comforting a hurting heart. These are small things, but in the grander scheme of things, God gives them significance.

Yes, small things may be stepping stones to bigger things to come. But He reminds us that our faithfulness to fulfill His call to small things is a determining factor to His willingness to call us to bigger things. He doesn’t call us to bigger if we haven’t been faithful to the small things first.

‘Because you have been trustworthy in a very small matter, take charge of ten cities.’Luke 19:17

Have you missed God’s call to the small things because you can only focus on the big things? Are you content to know that our faithfulness to fulfill His call to the small things is as important as accomplishing the big things? Do you know you’ve been called to something bigger than yourself, but you’ve struggled with each small step on the way? 

6 Comments

  1. Good post gal. Hugs and blessings, Cindy

  2. Love this, Stephanie. It’s so easy to try to focus on “doing more or bigger” that we often miss what God has called us to do now, and the importance of spending time with Him. I’ll be traveling the next few days, and I am so looking forward to unplugging, spending time with family, and spending time with Him. 🙂

    Love and blessings to you, sweet sister!

    • This is such a hard lesson for me to learn, Lisa! I vision big because we serve a big God. But He is just as concerned that we are faithful in the small as He is that we are faithful in the grand.

      Enjoy unplugging for a bit and bask in the beauty of His presence. He delights in you, sweet sister! 🙂

  3. This is confirmation for me. God is most definitely preparing me for the work He has for me to do in an outside the home ministry capacity, but I have felt for a while that He has been impressing it upon my heart to learn to focus on the small everyday things as well. I get the glory vision (His, not mine..haha), big and amazing!! I have a tendency to get wrapped up in that vision and forsake a lot of what I have right in front of me. He is teaching me to balance. My early mornings and later evenings are spent with Him in His Word, in my journals and other readings. The day is for my children. They are my single greatest commission here on earth and they need me to teach them the way they should go. I know I will be busy and it is imperative that I listen to and obey the Lord’s heeding right now and make that balance as much of a part of me as breathing.

    • Michelle,
      Thank you so much for sharing that. It’s so hard to find significance in the small when we know we are called to more. And the seasons we are in are all a very important part of the journey. Funny how what is right in front of is really our biggest calling. 🙂

Leave a Reply